FIDUE A65 Review

This interesting offering from FIDUE has a few note worthy features: titanium dynamic drivers, oxygen free cable & unique metal earpiece design. On paper they look like they mean business – find out if they can live up to the specs in our FIDUE A65 review.

FIDUE produce a range of high quality earphones that cater for everyone, they label these as being entry level, audiophile or reference level. The A65 falls into their entry level category – which with an RRP of £49.99 may seem a bit steep to some, is still a good price for a serious set of high quality, entry level earphones. But it does mean that they have to perform and stand up to the price tag.

Full Metal Jacket

FIDUE have done a great job at producing packaging that looks different to every other brand out there. The box design is incredibly clean and very well finished. Inside the A65 earphones are held neatly in place by a precision cut foam insert.

The earphones themselves are very unique looking and feel incredibly solid. The earpieces are made from 3 pieces of metal, all of which are finished differently. The rounded triangular end is a polished, brushed silver metal. The next section in, looks to be a brushed copper which we’ve never seen before – it is this part that really make the A65 look different, and in our eyes, really quite desirable. The business end is a little more regular in design which finishes off the earpiece design brilliantly. In the hand they feel weighty & ooze quality – these are not you’re usual metal earphones, they are far more solid and well built.

The oxygen free cable (OFC) is a slightly unusual looking silicone type – the silicone sleeving is semi-transparent allowing you to see a glimpse of the twisted cable inside. The cable exit from the earpiece is very tough, which looks to be a thick silicone sleeve that will take a lot of abuse & protect the cable incredibly well. On the shorter cable, below the right earpiece is the mic/control unit which  is finished very nicely with a grey spun metal casing & a button that has a solid feeling click.  Further down, the cable split and 3.5mm gold plated jack plug both have the same silicone cable re-enforcement and spun grey metal housing. This combination of cable re-enforcement & metal casing on all the components makes the FIDUE A65 incredibly tough – these have been built to last and survive everyday use.

Inside the box you also get:

• 3x sets grey silicone eartips (small, medium, large)
• 1 double flange eartips
• cable clip
• cable tie/wrap
• storage pouch

In use, we found the FIDUE A65 to be very comfortable & secure in the ear. Our preferred eartips (as usual) were the regular grey silicone type, which give a great comfortable fit with good sound isolation. While the earphones feel comparatively heavy in the hand – this isn’t apparent in the ear. They still feel lightweight & are comfortable enough that you forget that you are even wearing them.

While the inclusion of the cable tie/wrap is a nice touch – we found that it wasn’t really needed. The  squeeze/pop open storage pouch works very well (much better than the usual zip up clam shell case or standard bag) and keeps the earphones nice and tidy, with no tangling (assuming you wind them up neatly first).

Overall these are a great looking set of earphones with a nicely thought about set of accessories making them a very nice package – a lot of other manufacturers could learn a lot from FIDUE here.

Precise, Wide, Detailed Sound

The biggest standout quality of the sound is the overall clarity – clean, clear and precise. The level of detail that they produce is impressive – you can hear subtle background effects in the music that you might not have heard before.

Bassheads will want to add a little more bass using EQ – we found about +4dB of bass on a Sony Xperia Z3 & Google Play music worked wonders. With this EQ tweak in place – the sound is wonderfully big and lively. This extra little bass boost adds a natural sounding depth and warmth that compliments the rest of the sound beautifully. The mid range is a little scooped (in a good way), but retains a good punch and drive that pushes the music along. The treble is open and spacious, providing plenty of excitement and detail without any excessive harshness or accents.

Overall (with the additional bass EQ) the sound is big, detailed, open and has a fantastic wide stereo image. The FIDUE A65 manage to deliver a sound that punches way above their price tag – they are worth every penny.

FIDUE A65 Review Conclusion

FIDUE have done a great job in producing the A65 earphones. The included accessories have been chosen carefully and come together to make a well engineered, thought about package. The sound they produce is as good as their looks, if not, better. These are some of the most interesting earphones we’ve seen for some time, they look great, sound great and come in at a price tag that won’t break the bank. Overall, these are right up there with some of our previous favorites – top job FIDUE! We will be using these ourselves for some time to come.